MONSTERS YOU NEVER HEARD OF by Daniel Cohen

HEY, ANOTHER DANIEL COHEN BOOK HITS THE HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN!

  I forget if it was last year or the year before (or both) in the Countdown to Halloween that I talked about some Daniel Cohen books.  For those who are uninitiated, Cohen wrote probably 100s of books mainly for kids and young adults about various thangs scary; from horror movie monsters to ghost legends and everything in between.  This here book I dug out is sort of about cryptids before the word cryptids was a thing.  The OG book was published in 1980 but the paperback I have is the 4th printing from 1986 (I think).  Anyway, it has this cover which is better than the original cover artwork, in my humble.  So yeah, that's my cousin the good ol' Jersey Devil there on the cover and it's a rather fine likeness, if you ask me. 

So Cohen takes this slim paperback (a mere 97 pages with illustrations yet) to focus on those monsters less talked about; he has OTHER books discussing things like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.  Here Cohen focuses on what we would now probably call cryptids.  Starting with the Jersey Devil (definitely a cryptid), Cohen moves on to the early Victorian-era terror of London called Spring-Heeled Jack (not really a cryptid but I'm not sure what you'd call him -- an urban legend perhaps?).  Spring-Heeled Jack has long been a favourite of mine ever since I first read about him in one of Robert Cahill's books.  Next is a chapter on "Phantom Animals" which is kinda less interesting to me; such things as the Phantom Puma and other large cats seen mainly in England as well as . . . kangaroo encounters in Chicago (!).  "The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor" get the next chapter and that is something I first heard about, I think, in a BBC radio play of the same name; a long, deserted road in Dartmoor finds motorists encountering the hairy hands which suddenly appear and grab the steering wheel causing them to crash.  Demon Dogs is the next chapter featuring countless 'black dog' legends as well as mention of the Sherlock Holmes story "HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES".  Following that chapter is "Big Big Birds" focusing mainly on the native American legend of the Thunderbird.  "The Dover Demon" gets his chance to shine and he is DEFINITELY a cryptid; a big-headed spindly-bodied creature who sure looks like your typical denizen from a flying saucer.  Next is a chapter on "The Biggest Snake"; mainly about anacondas -- followed by the very odd Tazelworm (a lizard sorta creature with 2 legs) which I never heard of before reading Daniel Cohen's book.  Cohen wraps up his slim paperback with a chapter on "Goatmen and Grunches"; relatives of the satyr Pan.  All Daniel Cohen books, whether I read them as a kid (and a read quite a few of them then) or am just catching up with them now, are like a cuddly blanket of nostalgia for me and this one was no exception.  Boy, for my 70's childhood when all things spooky were widely available to we creepy kids.  Ain't like boring nowadays?